Nikaia or Nikea (Greek: Νίκαια, commonly known locally as "Kokkinia") is a suburb in the northern part of Piraeus, Greece. The mountaintop of the southern part of Aigaleo lies to the north. It is also located SE of Eleusis and GR-9, SW and W of Kifissou Avenue (GR-1/E75, W of Thivon Avenue, about 8 km WSW of Athens, WNW of Poseidonos Avenue and Syngrou Avenue and about 4 km N of downtown Piraeus. The city has main streets including Gregori Lambraki Street and Petrou Ralli Street that is divided into two way roads which is also linked.

The area was once made up of farmlands. Mixed farming was common. Urban development replaced much of the farmlands between the 1930s and the 1950s. Today, most of the municipality is urbanized or residential. The rocky landscape of Aigaleo with a few bushes lies to the north. The mountaintop is to the northeast and the valley is to the northwest. The industrial area lies to the southwest with most of the buildings, as the port of Piraeus. The area which was used for mining in the 1960s was transformed into a park.

The area is made up of hills with exception of the northwest where the Aegaleo ranges are located.

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History

After the Asia Minor Disaster of 1922, a huge influx of Asia Minor refugees shaped much of the character of the suburb. The fact that many of them voted communist gave Nikaia its nickname "Kokkinia" (redness).

On August 17, 1944, during the German occupation of WW II, Nikaia was blocked off by Axis forces who arrested many of its citizens and executed 148 of them. More than 1,000 others were sent to Concentration camps in Germany.

Other

Nikaia has schools, lyceums, gymnasia, banks, a police station, a post office, a hospital named Agios Panteleimonas also Nikea-Piraeus General Hospital a soccer team, a volleyball team named Nikaia Piraeus and squares (plateies).